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Maple Leaf Foods is Canada's largest and most dominant food processor. The recently appointed senior marketing director discovers on her first day on the job that the hot dog business at the company is completely broken: market share is down, profits are in free-fall, the products taste bad, there is a proliferation of brands and her team is a mess. To make matters worse, she inherits a job where there is little market data in the files and little to go by to help guide her decisions. She must prepare a short-term plan and a clear strategy for the future. The supplement to this case, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods - Fixing Hot Dogs (B), product 9B03M018, looks at the senior marketing director's short-term plans. Also available is the video, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods - Fixing Hot Dogs, product 7B03M017, that provides an update to what happened and a discussion with the senior marketing director.

Biosonics Incorporated was a rapidly growing entrepreneurial company specializing in the application of high frequency technology as a measurement tool for medical research. The president and one of the founding partners must determine the future direction of the company in the face of several possible options: continue to sell the company's measurement system; introduce the system into new, related markets; develop application technology for the clinical market; sell the company's intellectual property; sell the rights to the technology; or sell the company.

Talisman Energy is the largest Canadian oil and gas producer, with main business activities in exploration, development, production and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquid. At a special board of directors meeting, the management and board of Talisman conducted a review of the Sudan operations to assess its fit within the current business portfolio. After years of direct and often angry criticism by human rights groups and the fact that the United States government was threatening to restrict firms operating in Sudan from listing their securities on American markets, the board was considering its options in the region. The Sudan project had good economic value for Talisman with good future prospects and production possibilities. Additionally, the company had gone to considerable lengths to develop and implement socially responsible policies and programs in Sudan. Senior management believed that they had contributed to an increased quality of life for the people of Sudan. Despite this, activist groups had continued to attack Talisman for their role in Sudan. The continued pressure from activists and governments were believed to be responsible for a steady decrease in share price. The issue before the board in conducting this review was to question whether continuing operations in Sudan was compatible with Talisman's mandate to operate in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.

RFA Capital Management Inc. is the asset management subsidiary of Realty Financial Advisors Inc. The two principals of the company were deciding whether to bid on a recent investment opportunity. An upcoming commercial mortgage backed securities transaction was looking for a risk buyer for its high yield debt bonds and the principals were interested in participating in the transaction. This was a relatively new investment class. They wondered how they could sell this opportunity to one of RFA Capital Management's institutional or private investors, what yield requirements they should demand and how to price these bonds. As time was a factor, they wondered whether they should bid on this investment opportunity without first lining up the capital. They also wondered what long-term opportunities this investment might provide.

Canadian Tire Corporation consists of five main business groups: a large retail chain providing automotive parts, sports and leisure and home products; a financial division; a petroleum division; a specialty automotive parts division; and a retailer of casual and work wear clothing. The information technology group is faced with developing an implementation plan for the development of a business intelligence infrastructure and business capability at Canadian Tire Retail. Concurrent to this initiative is the development and implementation of an information technology strategy for Canadian Tire Corporation, which places a number of programs on the priority list, with business intelligence seen as a high priority item for which the organization can score some quick win business success.

Henry Birks & Sons, Inc. (Birks) is a large fine jewellery retail chain. The president and chief executive officer has spent several years streamlining the Canadian operations and building his management team in anticipation of an expansion. Its parent company, Iniziative Regaluxe, is looking for a return on its $65 million investment in Birks. This return will come about only if Birks proceeds with an initial public offering, or is bought out by a major competitor. Although the chief executive officer believes that expansion in the United States is the only way to find growth, this strategy is called into question when environment factors are examined. He must decide if expansion into the United States is the answer.

Pinnacle Technologies is an unusual company in that it acts essentially as a subsidiary of U.K.-based Psion Teklogix although it is 100 per cent independent. Psion Teklogix manufacturers wireless data communication devices that are used primarily in inventory management activities performed in warehouses, ports, factories and airports. In the mid 1990s, Psion gave Pinnacle Technologies exclusive Middle Eastern rights to the Teklogix technology and product line. It also assisted in training Pinnacle's development staff, programmers and sales representatives. By 2002, Pinnacle was prospering and was thinking of diversifying into related and unrelated software services. The chief executive officer must decide to what degree Pinnacle should diversify from its core business and determine what financial and managerial resources are required for the diversification. (A 27-minute video is available featuring a discussion with the chief executive officer of Pinnacle, product 7B03M054.)

Shanghai COS Software Ltd. designs and develops smart card operating systems. The company's marketing manager must decide the best basis for segmenting the burgeoning market for smart cards for wireless devices in China. She has excellent data on this duopoly market, the segments and their buying criteria. In fact, she already has received significant orders for low-end cards from each of the two large customers. However, she and the senior management team must decide on a market positioning for this young high-tech start up. She must select one of the two major customers whose size, structure and procedures are quite different. She must also decide whether the company should market low margin/high volume or high margin/low volume products. Both products seem to have a very short life expectancy in the face of rapidly changing customer expectations. The investors in the company want it to achieve profitability fairly quickly and still adopt sustainable positioning in the marketplace.

The unionized warehouse employees at Tepperman's Home Furnishings, a large furniture retailer, had been on strike for more than three weeks. Tepperman's, a family-owned and operated business, had a reputation for commitment to its employees and the community. Since the strike began, store sales were declining and picketers were causing difficulties for customers and other employees. Management needed to make some fast strategic decisions in order to manage the crisis situation. The supplement Tepperman's Home Furnishings (B), product 9B03C029, looks at the situation two months after the strike.

A top student in an MBA program had been pursued by the top-tier consulting firms that were recruiting at his school. Impressed by the prestige of the industry, he decided to choose a career in management consulting. After less than a year in the profession, the recent graduate is disillusioned. He is offered a marketing position that pays much less, but may be a better fit for him in a number of ways. He considers whether he should leave his lucrative career, whether he should accept the offer for the lesser paying position and whether he could be making another faulty career decision. In the case supplement Jack Harris (B), product 9B03C038 the former consultant reflects on his career decision-making.

Elite Inc. is a highly successful public relations firm. Elite's chief financial officer has been spending 18-hour days in an effort to get his work done. The newly appointed chief executive officer must determine the cause of the excessive workload and develop a strategy to deal with the chief financial officer's performance. The supplement Elite Inc. (B), product 9B03C040 discusses the implementation of the strategy and its outcome.

A year and a half after calling off their campaign against fast-food giant McDonald's, the vegan campaign coordinator of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), contacted Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to warn them that they would be the next target. He pointed out in his letter that while many of KFC's competitors had convened advisory panels to help them investigate the welfare of animals raised and slaughtered for their businesses, KFC appeared completely uninterested in the issue. PETA would rather not engage KFC in a campaign, but if the company refused to put together an animal welfare panel and to begin to look into the issue of how to raise and slaughter their chickens more humanely, all the leaflets, action alerts, posters, billboards, T-shirts and press releases PETA was now preparing would be dedicated to KFC and its cruel treatment of chickens. In January 2003, PETA, fed up with what it saw as KFC's lack of open communication, public misinformation, and outright stonewalling on change, announced a campaign against the company to the media in a news event replete with bloody descriptions of the cruelties of KFC's animal factories. Now it was time for Kentucky Fried Chicken to respond.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its newly appointed music director, performed a rarely heard composition. The musical performance was, by all accounts, superb. While most in the audience cheered the performance, a few of the audience members stormed out of the concert hall. These audience members were largely reacting to the high-tech mixed media show designed by a well-known artist that accompanied the performance. This performance was one of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's recent occasional and innovative breaks from concert tradition. The vice-president and general manager of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra recognized that opportunities existed onstage and offstage for broadening and enriching the orchestra's services and the concert experiences of its audience, in order to facilitate growth.

The account manager at a national bank is reviewing the file of a client - Northstar Aerospace - that wants to renew and increase its line of credit and term loan. Northstar Aerospace is a public conglomerate that had operations in four areas: semiconductors, pumps, aerospace and industrial technology. After a number of years with moderate success, the company reduced its diversity and focused on the aerospace industry. Most of the company's revenue comes from military contracts; however, due to the manufacturing cycle the company was experiencing a backlog of orders worth $260 million. The account manager must size up the business and project the balance sheet and income statement for the upcoming year to decide whether or not to approve the line of credit and if so, what the terms should be.

Osteria De Medici is a high-end restaurant located in the downtown core of a large Canadian city. The establishment has loyal customers with very little walk-in traffic, so the management of reservations becomes key. On peak days such as New Year's Eve, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, the restaurant would have vacant tables even though they were fully booked with advance reservations. Restaurant's management must determine if overbooking is an option, review the implications in overbooking and develop a model to determine a reservation schedule. An introduction to binomial distribution is provided.

National IR is a large communications consulting firm. The firm is working with a client, Catalyst Investment, in preparation of a hostile takeover bid. A senior consultant with National IR must determine if the acquisition price offer is appropriate, the perceptions of value by shareholder investors, assessment of investor reaction to alternative deal structures and assessment of the public reaction to acquisition strategies in a politicized environment to create a communication strategy for investors.

Two entrepreneurs have created a not-for-profit online back office system that can be used at no charge by any of Canada's 70,000 charities to reduce their operating costs. The cost of maintaining the system has been underwritten by major financial service firms. Just as the entrepreneurs are about to launch, a for-profit service announces a similar service that targets the same charities. The entrepreneurs are concerned about overlap, pre-emption and possible confusion in the market. They wonder if they should alter their planned strategy or perhaps should just abandon the project.

The Erie Performance Polymers division manager in China and general manager of Wuhan Erie Polymers joint venture, has just received approval for his requested transfer to divisional headquarters in the United States. In preparing the division and joint venture for the change, a key decision concerns his successor. He has received information on six candidates under consideration and knows that his recommendation will carry heavy weight in the final decision. The general manager has attempted to inculcate in his mainly Chinese workforce an appreciation for Western business practices and ability to enact them. At the same time, acknowledging their substantial differences, he has tried to mix elements of both Chinese and Western values in creating a culture for the joint venture. He believes strongly that his successor must be responsive to the tensions between the relevant cultures. As he compares them, he wonders which candidate has the best set of qualities to succeed him as general manager.

A new server at an established franchise restaurant is finishing her shift and has to decide how respond to a situation that happened with a customer earlier that day. The customer had found a lemon wedge in his milk. She resolved the problem with the customer but was concerned that this was another of many incidents that happened since she started. Should she deal with the person she believed was responsible directly or discuss the issue with the restaurant manager?

Cinatron Computing is a leading producer and distributor of managing workload software. The newly hired marketing manager has just received a phone call from the travel department requesting authorization for an employee's trip to a workshop. She thought she had already addressed this issue with the employee and now it seems he is going over her head. Why did this occur and what is her next step?